I meant to get this posted yesterday but I my parents arrived on Wednesday evening and I didn’t get a chance to finish it up. Did I mention my parents were coming for a visit? Well they are here, and it’s been a fun couple of days already. Yesterday, my Mom and I went to a taping of the Marilyn Denis Show. It was their fashion show and it was great. And we got $250 worth of great stuff as giveaways! Amazing. Anyhoo, more on our visit next week but for now, I’m getting back to my organizing series….

…and my desk reveal! Remember my original post about my desk? Well, I know the reveal has been a long time coming, and it’s actually been completed for awhile but actually posting it has been slow process. Since it has been sooo long, here is a reminder of the “before”….

And this is it now! (OK, I admit, RIGHT now it doesn’t look like this, but close)…

The chair was a curbside find that I reupholstered (quite a while ago). Because I’m renting the the desk and shelf were here when I moved in, instead of painting them, I used white stick-on drawer liner and covered the brown. The curtain and little pot lights are IKEA.

Here are more before shots…..

And more afters….

I added a little bit of art by framing some cool retro images from a old calendar which I bought at one of a kind a few years ago (I can’t remember the name of the place…) in basic IKEA frames. My pencil cups are vintage jadeite salt and pepper shakers I bought at an antique store. And I added the rod to hang fabric swatches and hold ribbon….but could be used to hang anything really.

And I love this idea I found on pinterest…if you have cords that keep falling behind your desk when you unplug them, rather than buying some fancy cord holder, use a bulldog clip to keep them from doing so…working well so far!

And I bought some organizing bins from Solutions for my drawers. I think they look much better….

And under my desk I added some plain shelves to help store my printer, shredder, and some of my papers.

And on my whiteboard, I kepp two little saying that I think we all should remind ourselves of everyday. One is more poetic, one is more to the point and I’m sure you can figure out which is which.

And that is that! I’m trying my best to keep it as organized as it was when I took the photos and so far I’m not doing too bad. But it’s definitely more please to sit there now.

Next up, my closet. I am swallowing my pride by posting this before picture, so please don’t judge too harshly….

Have you ever noticed that it’s when you are so busy you can’t see straight that you notice disorganization in your life? When you are busy and something isn’t where it should be or you’ve lost something, it’s a bajillion times more frustrating. Well, that’s how it is for me anyway. And with my insane last 2 weeks of my busy day job, my upholstery client projects, and the Upcycle Challenge, I became acutely aware of everything that was disorganized in my life. I am a strange anomaly of someone who is not naturally organized but wants organization around them. I crave it even…but don’t practice it. In my recent busy-ness I promised that as soon as I had some time I would start to get organized.

So, I’m starting a series. It’s called

I’m going to share with you my attempts at organizing parts of my life, for starters, my space. I am swallow my pride and will be sharing some disturbing accounts of my disorganization. I’m ok with self-deprecation! And I think if I put it out there I’m more likely to fix it. I will not be providing the advice in this series, as I clearly don’t know my ass from my elbow when it comes to this stuff. But will be relying on others (like bloggers, organization websites, etc.) to help me (and maybe you)!

The first project is my office cubby. There are lots of things wrong with it but a crazy amount of paper and terrible storage are the big ones….here it is over a year ago….

I’ve since done some work to it and the desk and shelf are now white. I’ve added a small drawer unit underneath for storage but it’s still a mess….check out the madness….gulp…

So there you have it. In all it’s embarrassing chaos.

But the good news is I’m going to make it better. I’ve already started. I will keep you updated on the progress and hopefully have others to share some tips along the way. My closet will be next. Also a doosey.

If you have some organizing tips to share and would like to be a guest in this series, let me know! I clearly need all the help I can get.